$4+ a gallon seems to have had at least a mental impact on Hamvention Attendees
Hotels also see you coming, putting up rates.
Attending the Dayton Hamvention is Generally Expensive.
Visually the Headcount down.
Packing up Saturday outside in the Flea Market was surprising, specially with the number of empty Flea Market spots.
Not to be discounted is the general sleeze factor of the dirty dirty Hara and the otherwise abandoned Salem Mall parking.
Hara was dirty, broken down and basically unimpressive. It seemed like last year’s dirt was still there.
The Hara is definitely not “spouse friendly” or offering good curb appeal. Not with operative words like “dirty, broken, out-of-order, unfinished and such.”
What will 2009 Hold? Perhaps relocation to a clean, safe venue? I heard a number of hams talking of flying out to West Coast or Southern Ham Shows as potentially being a better value.
Time will tell.
73
Steve
K9ZW
With Varying Frequency - Amateur Radio Ponderings 
Steve,
I tend to agree with your comments (“great minds think alike” ?)
Hara has been a mess for a while but I really noticed it this year for some reason.
See my comments at
http://www.k0nr.com/blog/2008/05/observations-from-dayton.html
73, Bob K0NR
With the money paid to Hara for all of the stuff that goes on there you would think they could spend a buck and fix it up. We have been going to Hamvention for about 14 years and Hara gets worse every year. :(
73 Karen